Feeling stale? Nab one of these easy tricks for turning up the heat on your training.

by Lisa Dolbear

As race season starts to get underway, workouts can start to feel stale. If your A-race is still a ways off, the lack of race-day adrenaline combined with fatigue from months of training can mean bodies and minds are due for a motivation top-up.

Maybe you're simply just tired. Perhaps you're fighting a bit of triathlon purposelessness, and are finding yourself tempted by summer’s bevy of impromptu social invites to socialize. Alas, you have workouts to do.

The choice is yours: go through the motions, or fire up your focus with mental training techniques that will help you tap into the same old workouts in new, exciting ways.

Put some wanderlust in your workout

As triathletes, we get used to repetition pretty quickly. But just because our bodies are constantly going through the same motions doesn’t mean we should always stay in the same places. A change of scenery can in fact do wonders to freshen up the focus.

"Doing a familiar workout in an unfamiliar place challenges you to be more mindful of your surroundings and tune into the environment," says sports psychologist Gloria Petruzzelli. "It can also be a way for athletes to separate themselves from the stresses or obligations of their normal environment." Training close to home (or at home) can lead to a mental inventory of what needs to get done around the house, errands to run, or just spacing out in general. "I always recommend triathletes go trail running to see how their focus, motivation, and sense of mindfulness changes."

"What you do in training will be the patterns that translate to racing."

Petruzzelli isn’t the only one who prescribes a change of scenery to help revive focus. IRONMAN Certified Coach Vicki Ostendorf finds her athletes struggle with focus as workouts increase in duration. "Dissassociative techniques can be useful when an athlete has to train longer than two hours. At that point, I’ll have them change the scenery, listen to great music, or train with other athletes," the 52-year-old St. Paul, MN native says. "The goal is to have athletes think about things unrelated to the task at hand as a means of distraction." She cautions, however, that allowing for distraction doesn’t mean tuning out of internal and external signals that could compromise safety or the ability to reach training goals.

Bust out the beats

Pacing is everything in training, but falling into the same stroke rate during the swim, consistent cadence on the bike, and foot strike on the run can become monotonous.

Music can be a powerful motivator and enhance an athlete’s ability to leverage a different kind of focus technique known as "associative." "Associative thoughts are based on the performance itself," Ostendorf says. "They’re important for breakthrough workouts, when an athlete is stressing the body at higher levels and is thinking of a clear race component." During these workouts, Ostendorf might ask her athletes to run a certain pace — something that can be difficult to maintain through the course of the workout. A steady beat can be the perfect workout wingman to get the job done.

Try curating a playlist that can help you stay locked in to your target paces and focused on a consistent, steady speed. If you need help, the Nike+ app allows you to input pace goals and musical preference. According to the website, the data then informs a target BPM, which in turn creates a personalized 100-song playlist designed to push an athlete’s running pace.”

Cue up a cause

When the going gets tough, sometimes the tough needs context. Charity races, training teams, and even simply creating awareness through workouts are all ways to bolster the training experience into something more meaningful than logging miles.

"Groups are powerfully motivating and research has shown that training with one enhances a sense of purpose," says Petruzzelli. In other words: if the workout itself doesn’t motivate you anymore, perhaps the way your workout benefits someone else can reignite your focus.

"Every time I go out for a run, I do it for my children, to make sure their mama is strong and healthy and will be there for every future milestone," shares 37-year-old Emily Kulkus of Syracuse, NY. When her young son was diagnosed with kidney cancer, her training took on new meaning. She formed a team in his honor, inspiring some people in her life to run for the first time ever in an upcoming charity race benefiting pediatric cancer. "I’d run forever if it meant erasing childhood cancer for good. If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is," she says.

No matter how you choose to reignite your focus, know that your efforts will not only benefit you in the moment, but will likely give you a stronger resolve when it comes time to toe the line. Says Petruzzelli: "What you do in training will be the patterns that translate to racing."

In other words: a practice-makes-perfect focus just might take you to a personal-best finish line.